In one of his more elaborate metaphors Nato's redoutable spokesman Jamie Shea
tried to play down the potential significance of the use - or as it now
seems - the non-use of the US Apache helicopters currently based in Albania.

The Apaches, he said, were not like the Seventh Cavalry who would ride over
the hill as the last reel of the movie began to rescue Nato's air campaign.

They were but one more weapons system, that would be brought into play at a
time of the Nato commander's choosing.

That time has not yet come. Two Apache's have already been lost in training
accidents. And two air-crew have lost their lives.

The Apaches are still
hovering in Albania, with political and military caution in Washington
condemning them to a role on the side-lines.

Like so much of the Nato air
campaign, the Apaches are in a sense victims of their own press machine.
These are said to be among the most devastating weapons in the US Army's
arsenal. The Apache is a fearsome killer of enemy armoured vehicles armed
with anti-tank missiles and a devastating cannon.

Deployed alongside
Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems - the MLRS - capable of firing the long-range
TACMS missile - the Apaches, it was thought, would zoom into Kosovo after a
preliminary bombardment had neutralised any air defences in their path.

No front line

The reality has been rather different. The Apaches have not been used and
probably for justifiable reasons.

US says the Apaches are ready for action

Their combat role is to range ahead of
their own forces destroying enemy vehicles in their path. This assumes that
any threat to them in a highly mobile battle is some 180 degrees to their front, a risk with which they are well-trained to deal.

But
given the way Yugoslav units are dispersed in Kosovo and in the absence of
any ground incursion by Nato forces, the Apaches will have no front line
ahead of which to operate.

They will face danger from lethal hand-held
surface to air missiles from a full 360 degree circle
around them.

No wonder then that the Pentagon and the White House have
weighed up the risks to this all-American force and decided that for now the
Apache's should simply wait this one out.

Some limited missions may be flown
to attack Yugoslav forces near to the Albanian frontier.

But any suggestion
of the Apaches penetrating deep into Kosovo to strike terror into the hearts
of Yugoslav troops is a little like expecting the Lone Ranger to gallop
across the frontier to round up the bad guys before the credits roll.